Catching up

[Fred Wright]

On Tue, 4 Feb 2025, Richard Laager via devel wrote:
> On 2025-02-03 23:31, Hal Murray via devel wrote:
>>> Did you see my comment about how dropping Python 2 before getting rid of
>>> the polyXXX wrapers is dangerous, because removing the wrappers without
>>> properly fixing the underlying code is more likely to break Python 3 than
>>>   Python 2?
>
> I'm concerned that we might be talking past each other here. I'm not sure 
> what you think "dropping Python 2" and "getting rid of the polyXXX wrappers" 
> means.
>
> Based on my idea of what those things mean, it has to be in the other order. 
> We have to drop Python 2 before we can get rid of the polyXXX wrappers, as 
> the whole point of the polyXXX wrappers is to support both Python 2 and 
> Python 3 at the same time. I don't see how we can reasonably get rid of those 
> wrappers while still supporting both Python 2 and Python 3.

No, it has never *ever* been necessary to use polyXXX wrappers to support 
both Pythons.  The wrappers were created to allow taking *preexisting 
Python 2 code* and making it *also* work with Python 3 without 
significantly changing it.  If the underlying code isn't changed, then 
removing the wrappers simply gives you the same old Python 2 code that 
doesn't work in Python 3.  If you refactor the underlying code to conform 
to the Python 3 philosophy of treating text and binary data as different 
data types, then you have code that works in Python 3 *and Python 2* 
without the wrappers.  Viewing the removal of Python 2 as a prerequisite 
for removing the wrappers is bassackwards.

Fred Wright